BCSS - Forum

Hey all!

Hope you are well and safe!!

So my partner built me a greenhouse back in November and I brought majority of my cacti there in March. I've started noticing that a lot of my gymnocalycium got sun stressed, all mihanovichii tanned themselves in brick red and some other gymnos are quite reddish too. So I put them on a shelf where they get somewhat of a shade.

My greenhouse gets minimum of morning sun, and then its full blast in the afternoon and evening. I leave door open to get some air in, but even then its about 30 degrees inside. So i was thinking if I should shade the greenhouse somehow or bring fans to avoid possible burns?

Any advise appreciated!

I have bubble wrap up normally but went with garden fleece this year so am seeing what happens
Maybe if you could put photos to show it might help people

I've used garden fleece before, and have found it disintegrates quite quickly in the uv. I know someone who uses net curtains with good results.

My main greenhouse is in full sun all day, and needs shading in the summer, usually mid April to mid October. I now use green shade netting over the roof and some of the sides, fairly easy to fix on a wooden greenhouse. I leave the door and windows open in the summer, with a grill over the door. A fan is also a good idea.

I have a large ash tree to the side of mine that helps shade it when it leafs out. But also pigeons sit in it and cr@p all over the roof, which makes a kind of natural sunscreen In winter, once rain has softened it up a bit, I just hose it off. Interesting to see how their diet changes through the seasons - elderberry time is very colourful

I have had the same problem for some time (same orientation of the greenhouse) and in particular I agree with the excessive exposure of the gymnocalycium. I live in northern Italy and I am forced to use a shading net to avoid excessive temperatures during the summer, despite the ventilation (behind the windows the heat is always excessive). In the past I have used a green anti-hail net without having problems in plant development. Now I have turned to using a white shading net with a 50% reduction in light and for now I do not notice any modification of the blooms or reduction of the growth of the thorns.
Ruggero

Don't worry about G. mihanovicii being red. Mine are all like that!

I realised that I don't have any new photos of my greenhouse, just the ones from gloomy dark November and February snow

I'm not too worried about mihanovichii, although I do miss the green tint. I'm a little worried about other ones who are coloured in brick color. I realised that again I didn't take any good photos, but I did take a partial photo where you can see the tint on them. Other gymnos that were left on a shelf in not that big of an exposure are fine. I suppose my best bet is just to place white sun shade to reduce it a little.